Negotiations will determine future of Old Town Square

Repairs in works for popular gathering point

Nov. 1, 2012

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Learn more about the city’s Downtown General Improvement District at www.fcgov.com/gid.

Success grows from failure

• Mid- to late 1970s: With a struggling downtown, the city of Fort Collins works to improve College Avenue; downtown merchants enable legislation for a Downtown Development Authority to allow investment of public tax money in public improvements; some building owners begin sprucing up their properties. • 1980: Many of Old Town’s buildings are placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Old Town Associates, a group of downtown business people, forms. Fort Collins developer Gene Mitchell turns his attention to the town’s center. • September 1981: Mitchell announces Old Town Associates plans to develop Old Town Square, bounded by Mountain and College avenues and Jefferson Street. The original vision includes a public square, gourmet restaurants, sidewalk cafes and plenty of retail space, along with condos and a dinner theater later removed from the plan due to funding concerns. With a scaled-back vision and general partner Madsen Consolidated Corp. of Denver, Mitchell appeals to the newly formed DDA for $4.3 million in tax increment financing for street improvements and a parking garage. • 1983: The DDA gives the OK for tax increment financing, and by year’s end, Old Town Square is under construction. • May 1985: Old Town Square is officially dedicated, but is not a financial success as more than half the square stands vacant. • June 1985: Mitchell cuts his own company by 20 percent and a few months later resigns as partner in Old Town Associates. The remaining partner, Madsen Construction, assumes ownership in March 1986 but, two years later, defaults on the loan. CNA, a Chicago-based insurance company that had insured the loan, takes over Old Town Square in March 1988 and asks the courts to appoint Foxfire Property Management and Brian Soukup as local managers. • 1992: Brian Soukup buys Old Town Square from CNA. — Pat Ferrier

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Negotiations under way among the city, Downtown Development Authority and Progressive Old Town Square could chart the future of Old Town Square for decades to come.

The 27-year-old square, a public plaza owned by the DDA and surrounded by 110,000 square feet of privately owned office and retail space in a dozen historic buildings, is considered the heart and soul of downtown Fort Collins, the summer home of festivals and fairs, the winter address of Santa, and, until this year, home to ice skating.

But bricks and mortar eventually wear out and with more than 100 events per year, Old Town Square’s popularity is outpacing its design.

“From an infrastructure standpoint, now is the time for there to be some repairs and with repairs gives us an opportunity for some improvements,” said Michael Short, executive director of the Downtown Business Association, which manages activities in the Old Town Square plaza.

Current talks going on behind closed doors likely will drive a mission to enhance the square as the public gathering point of choice, although officials from the DDA and Progressive Old Town Square declined to elaborate on what’s being negotiated. Both said there could be more information within the next three months.

When the plaza on Old Town Square was formed, it created a legal relationship among the city, DDA and Progressive Old Town Square, said DDA Executive Director Matt Robenalt. The three parties now are trying to work out arrangements for how renovations might be accomplished, he said.

Last year, the city sought ideas for the next round of projects to be completed by the city’s Downtown General Improvement District, a property tax district created by property owners for the purpose of funding parking, pedestrian and street beautification improvements downtown. Past projects have included College Avenue corner plazas, medians and street trees; Oak Street Plaza; Linden Street streetscape; recent sidewalk replacements; and the sidewalk bike dismount signs and decals.

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The top priority identified by the survey: Old Town Square renovations. While the square is “highly successful as the No.1 focal point of downtown, it has been described as tired,” according to the city’s 2011 Downtown GID Capital Improvements Plan.

Funding from the general improvement district — up to about $1 million — could help the DDA with some improvements, the city has acknowledged. Other recommended funding sources include the DDA, and the next citywide Capital Improvements Program package, which is expected to be presented to city voters in 2015, according to the GID plan.

What the involved improvements might be is still to be determined.

“Some people want to keep it the way it is with minor tweaks, some people want to move the fountain, all those things are on the table,” said Ed Stoner, who served on the City Council when Old Town Square was first developed and now manages the site. “I imagine there will be a lot of outreach” before any specific changes are decided, he said.

The city’s capital improvements plan lists some of the needs: reconfiguration of the fountain, stage and kiosk/restroom building to make room for larger performances and enhance the connection with Linden Street; electric infrastructure for performance sound and lighting; plaza lighting renovation; renovation of the fountain equipment and updating of finishes, plantings and irrigation.

While Old Town Square’s future is still to be determined, there’s no question about the role it has played in transforming downtown, Short said.

“As we look to renovations and improvements to Old Town Square, we first have to recognize at the end of the day success is going to be in managing to do these things without changing that special magic that is downtown, that is Old Town and is the place that attracts people. There is something special happening here.”